A coiled portion of a electrical cord, a cable, or a rope is typically secured using a tie or the like. The tie secures adjacent portions of the coiled electrical cord, cable, or rope.
For example, an iron cord may be difficult to conveniently store when the iron is not in use. The iron cord might be wrapped around the handle of the iron in an attempt to secure the iron cord. However, the iron cord may comes loose, and often makes storage of the iron difficult. As another example, a lamp cord may be much longer than necessary to connect the lamp to the electrical outlet. The excess lamp cord will often be left on the floor, which may become a safety hazard. Also, the excess lamp cord may be unsightly. Even if the excess lamp cord is tucked underneath and/or behind another object, such as a dresser or a table, the excess cord may become dislodged during cleaning.
The unused portion of an electrical cord may be coiled into a coil portion. Then, a length of wire tie may be wrapped around the midsection of the electrical cord coil portion and tightened. The secured portion of the electrical cord coil can then be placed in a convenient, out of the way location so that the secured electrical cord coil does not become a hazard or nuisance.
However, using a tie to secure a coiled portion of an electrical cord has several disadvantages. First, forming a coil in a portion of the electrical cord may be difficult, especially for a person who may be physically challenged. Second, it may be difficult to secure the tie around the coiled portion of the electrical cord since the tie must first be placed in a desired position about the coil portion, and then the coil must be maintained while the tie is being secured. Further, the tie typically leaves large portions of the coiled cord unsecure. For example, the unsecured ends of the secure coil portion may become entangled with other objects, thereby creating a potential hazard or nuisance. And finally, it may be difficult to find a tie as they are small and easily misplaced.
In some situations, it may be desirable to secure two or more coiled electrical cord portions together. However, a single tie may not be large enough, or strong enough, to secure more than one single electrical cord. Further, forming multiple coils from multiple electrical cords, and maintaining the coil portions while the tie is being secured, may be a very difficult and challenging physical task.
The above-described securing of a coiled portion of an electrical cord is equally applicable to other long flexible structures, such as cords, cables, ropes, chains, or the like. For example, boat ropes can be difficult to maintain in a secure manner so that that they are easily accessible. During a critical maneuver of a boat, such as during a docking procedure, the operators must have ready access to the plurality of docking ropes, which are typically stored in a coiled form. However, if the docking ropes are jumbled and tangled together, it will be relatively difficult to prepare a boat for docking. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a means for easily securing, storing, and retrieving a plurality of coiled docking ropes.